At least one candidate took the time to clarify who he really was during the last debate. Of course, that candidate was John McCain when he said, “Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.” In fact, Obama is probably the only person who needed to have this explained. Had McCain been more like Bush, conservatives would be voting for a candidate, rather than against Obama. But Americans are still waiting to hear an honest sentence from Obama about his past. The issue isn’t only about William Ayers, but rather Obama’s vast history of seeking out associations with people who have the same anti-American views as Ayers. Not only do these associations draw questions about Obama’s character judgment, they also cast doubt onto Obama’s believability of the policy statements he makes during the campaign. Trust should never be guaranteed to any politician. In fact, Obama’s refusal to disclose his full relationships only throws a key foreign policy issue into question.
Jesse Jackson made news when he told the World Policy Forum in France that Obama would end the, “decades of putting Israel’s interests first,” with his Middle East policies. Had this been an isolated incident to threaten Obama’s credibility on this issue, it would not require questions. Jackson’s statement, however, was far from the only piece in the puzzle. Newsweek recently ran an article about $30,000 in Obama campaign contributions that the campaign had to return to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The campaign only returned the contributions, which were made in increments of less than $200 and therefore not required to be individually recorded, after it had been deemed illegal by the FEC. Obama spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said the Palestinian donations were made by two brothers who bought bulk t-shirt orders from the campaign’s website and when they listed their address as “Ga.” the campaign took it to mean Georgia. No one commented about whether the order actually shipped and if so, what address they were shipped to. Read the rest of this entry »
